The Queen and her Dragonrider
by Zerodone
Summary: When a girl lands in Alagaesia and is given the powers of the Zerg, just how drastic will history change? [Rating may change]
1. Encounter of another kind

**An encounter of the other kind**

Whenever Eragon thought he had figured out the Spine, it ironically always decided to show him how wrong he was. Exactly those thoughts were going through his mind when he tended to his morning routine. The charred area didn't look any different from the night before, meaning everything that transpired the day before had not been a dream. Well, the fact that the stone was still in his backpack should have been proof enough. But at the same time, everything that had happened the day before was so surreal, he had a hard time wrapping his head around all of this.

Eragon shook his head clear. Thinking about it wouldn't bring his family any money. The only solution there was right now was to go back to Carvahall and hope to sell the arguably pretty stone for a good price. After the boy got rid of some no longer needed liquid from his body, he was ready to have some breakfast. He just hoped the porridge wouldn't attract any wolves this time. That had been one interesting evening, to say the least. Luckily, this time, no animal seemed to be attracted to his food. At least not initially. Just as he got ready to hike back down the mountain, he heard a rustling from one of the bushes. Initially, Eragon believed it to be a squirrel or rabbit, even though normally he never saw one this high up in the mountains. Not bothering to even look, the 17-year-old started his journey back down the Spine.

The journey back wasn't exactly easy. Eragon followed a trail made by animals. And since animals aren't exactly architects of any kind, the path often took long detours or was seemingly no longer there. Despite all its drawbacks, it was still the fastest way back. The Spines weren't exactly "natural" so to speak. Many people, especially people living in small villages near the mountain range said that the Spine was cursed. Every village had it's own little story about seemingly magical phenomena (Carvahall would soon have another one added to its list), but the one story that was consistent throughout all of them was how one day King Galbatorix lost half of his army, as it traversed through the mountains. No one knew what happened to the soldiers, whether it was the work of Urgals, the Varden or some supernatural being. The list of theories was probably as long as the list of stories Brom, Carvahall's personal storyteller had in his repertoire.

Despite keeping a brisk pace, Eragon wasn't out of the woods after half a day. He wasn't worried about that, he had supplies which would last until the next day and until then he'd be back at home. It was just an inconvenience for him. If at least he'd come across some of the local wildlife, he may be able to get a last minute catch, but so far he'd only seen a couple of birds.

After reaching a clearing, the young hunter decided to take a small break there. The tracks he left the previous day were still visible to him. An untrained person might have missed them, but to the boy they might as well have been fresh. So it's no surprise that he could see another set of tracks in the dirt, next to his own. Judging by how fresh the earth still was the animal that made those tracks must have come across the area roughly an hour ago. Sadly he couldn't recognize what animal left them, as the prints were placed on each other multiple times. If the boy had confirmation that these tracks were made by deer, he might have considered going after them and catching something he could sell for sure. But as things stood, he couldn't risk chasing some animals, no matter the kind. He was needed at home after all.

But it appeared like fate decided one exciting event happening to him was not enough. The boy heard for the second time this day rustling in the bushes. Like the first time, he didn't think too much about it, as it was a common occurrence in the woods. Later he would wish he paid better attention to his surroundings. Out of the bushes, no less than five hounds like creatures appeared and snarled at Eragon. The creatures appeared to be insectoid in nature and were somewhat similar build as dogs. The beasts had sharp teeth, with two horns growing out of where the cheeks were supposed to be and reached easily Eragon to his waist. Aside from the small spines growing out of the back chitin plating of those things, there were two additional and significantly longer spines grew out of them and were pointed in the direction the monsters were facing. In this case at Eragon. The boy was so surprised by their sudden appearance, he stumbled over his own feet, screaming. Desperately the boy tried to get his bow in his hands, but it was to no avail. Eragon could feel one of the beast slamming into his side, followed by a sudden pain in his head and then...nothing.

XXX

XXX

XXX

The first thing Eragon noticed after waking up, was the feeling of something icky on the outside of his head, while the inside felt like Horst had hammered on the skull for the past week. Slowly he moved a hand towards where the pain emitted from while blinking a few times in order to get adjusted to the light. From what he could see it was still daytime, meaning he either slept through an entire day or that he had only been out cold for a maximum of an hour or so.

As those thoughts went through his head, he remembered just why he had been unconscious at all. Eyes widening in horror, the hunter jerked up, only to find out he was still surrounded by those monsters. The only difference, this time, were the numbers! Whereas before there were five, now he was surrounded by ten!

 _This is a dream._ He told himself. _There is no other explanation! A stone appearing out of nowhere, those monsters all around me. And what is going on with the ground? It's all gray and...slimy. Hehe, maybe Brom was right. Maybe I do have an active imagination._

Having more or less convinced himself that he, in fact, was not in any immediate danger, Eragon started scanning his environment. The gray mush, as he dubbed it inside of his head, stretched across a wooded area, one Eragon was actually all too familiar with. It was an alternate path, which the dealers took from time to time. Something that convinced him even further that this all was a dream, was firstly a huge structure in the middle of the gray mush. It seemingly was made of flesh and who ever heard of something like that? On the ground were some holes that looked like entrances to the said structure. Maybe it was a nest? It appeared his dreams had at least some kind of logic. Although the teeth on the ground and on top were a bit of a stretch of the imagination.

Next to the structure was something else. It almost reminded Eragon of a butterfly cocoon, by a stretch of the imagination. It was round and purple in shape and had the same carapace for protection as those dog-like things.

Curious and admittedly still a little nervous, Eragon finally got up from the ground and approached the cocoon. His steps made all kinds of "splurge" noises, as he got closer to his destination. The hounds around him seemed to tense up, one even hissed at Eragon causing him to stop and look a little more careful. Without him noticing, the creatures had crept closer and where only an arm's length away.

 _Dream or not, my instincts tell me to run away as fast as possible._

For a moment Eragon looked around, hoping to find some sort of opening, but the creatures had made sure that there was no escape route. Now he could only hope that this was a dream or else he doubted that by the end of this day there would not be much left of him.

 _Don't be afraid._

"AHH!" Eragon screamed, startled by the voice suddenly coming literally out of nowhere. He frantically looked around for the source, but couldn't find anyone.

 _Leave him be._

The same voice appeared once again. The young hunter wasn't as startled as before but looked around even more frantically. So much in fact that he accidentally caused his head to spin a little. The hounds in the meantime took a few steps back, just enough to give the boy some breathing room.

 _What is going on? Maybe this isn't a dream. Maybe I'm going insane! Am I seeing things? Have I gotten sick?_

 _Please calm down._

What the-?! "Who are you?" Eragon shouted. "Where are you? What is going on?!" Eragon shouted into the air.

 _There is no need to shout. You just need to think the words and I can hear them._

"So I'm going insane?" Eragon asked out loud. After all, more than one person in Carvahall was convinced in order to hunt in the Spine, you had to be anything but what was considered a normal human being.

 _No, you're not. At least I don't believe so…_

 _That's not very reassuring._ The boy thought automatically. What followed was the voice in his head giggling.

 _Don't worry. I'm myself not sure whether I am dreaming or not. It all feels so surreal. Even the conversation we're having._

"Okay." Eragon nodded to himself. He just spotted his backpack and bow placed next to a tree, only around ten yards away. In his mind, he formulated a plan of sprinting to his stuff, grab the bow and remaining arrows and then shoots as many of the hounds as possible, before any of them could react.

 _I know you're in a lot of distress and if I were in your position, I am sure I would be too._

"I am not sure I can do that. Especially when I can't see who I am talking to."

 _I am behind you._

"What?!" Eragon spun around and found himself staring at the cocoon-like structure.

 _I am inside the cocoon._

"You're trapped?! Did those...things do this to you?!" he exclaimed, already searching for his knife in his pockets.

 _I wouldn't call it trapped per say. More like...this cocoon exists to safeguard me._

"Safeguard?" At this point, the young hunter was at a complete loss. First, a stone appeared out of nowhere, causing an explosion, next he was attacked by some feral beasts, which then brought them to their nest or something similar. With the knife in his hand, the boy slumped to the ground, rubbing his temples and desperately hoping to wake up from this confusing dream.

 _You're lost, aren't you?_

"Can you see through this thing?" Eragon asked at the risk of maybe talking to himself. He didn't know.

 _Your voice gave it away. Maybe we should start from the beginning. My name is Mana._

"...Eragon." the boy eventually said, eyeing the beasts, which have now laid down on their stomachs, eyeing said boy in return.

 _Hmm, curious. I feel like I have heard the name before._

"Huh?" the boy turned his head back towards the cocoon. "You have?"

 _I am not sure. It feels like I should know the name, yet at the same time… I'm sorry. I'm so confused myself. Ever since I woke up here, my mind has been a mess._

Eragon titled his head a little. "You woke up here? What exactly do you mean?"

 _I guess I should tell you as much as I remember, so it will be easier for you to comprehend. I don't know how much time passed ever since I woke up here at this place._

"Woke up? What do you mean?" the boy asked.

 _It was just like that. I don't remember how I even got up the mountains. Ever since I came here, my memory has been unreliable. I remember bits and pieces, like for example that I was surrounded by a lot of people and we were dancing for example. All I clearly remember is that I had cuts all over my body._

"Did someone hurt you?" he asked concerned.

 _Maybe. I had lost a lot of blood already and surely would have died if it wouldn't have been for this structure behind me._

"You mean...this?" the boy pointed at the building, forgetting for a moment that Mana couldn't see him.

 _Yes. As if it had a mind of its own, it reacted to my presence and some kind of liquid came out of it. I was lying on the ground already, barely being able to crawl. The liquid somehow stuck to my skin and enveloped me after some time._

"Wait, what?! It grew all over you?! How is this possible?"

 _I don't know, but it saved my life. Despite my wounds being long closed, my body is still lacking a significant amount of blood. I wouldn't be able to survive outside for long. This cocoon keeping me safe, while I recover. And of course, there are the Zerglings._

"Zerglings?" Eragon echoed, looking back at the creatures that knocked him out or rather the creatures he was dreaming off. He hoped for the latter.

 _I...named the creatures like that. They live in the...nest behind me._

"Their nest? I wonder how they built such a thing."

 _Additionally, to healing me, this...whatever it is has given me the ability to talk by touching other people's minds, like I am doing with you._

"So they gave you magic?!" the boy exclaimed.

 _...Maybe? Again, I'm not too sure. But...another strange thing is, when I talk to the Zerglings, they will do whatever I tell them._

"Really? Whatever you say?!" The farmer had a hard time believing this. He could only imagine what he would be capable of if those Zerglings were under his control. Alone the amount of farmland he would be able to care for, if they all pulled a plow.

 _Just watch. Bring Eragon his backpack._

The boy watched in fascination as one of the Zerglings stood up, walked over to his backpack, gently picked it up with its teeth and finally brought it back to Eragon. Afterward, the Zergling moved away and joined his pack once again.

The farm boy blinked a couple of times, before checking the contents of his bag. Luckily nothing appeared to be missing, not even the stone.

"Wow…"

 _Indeed. Oh and I'm sorry that the Zerglings attacked you earlier. My guess is that you came too close to their nest._

"Uh huh. But, what I don't understand is why they should be helping you. They look like they could tear a human apart in no time. What exactly are those beasts anyway? I have never seen or heard of those things before."

 _I don't know. I just began calling them Zerg. As…"exciting" as this was at the beginning, I was getting really bored. It's really refreshing to talk to another human again. I'm just surprised you're aren't crying hysterically or curled up in a ball._

"Er…" The boy didn't know how to respond to that. Now that he thought about it, there were enough legitimate reasons to do just that, even for a man. He just then noticed that the sun had started to set. He was expected to be back at the farm tomorrow.

 _Do you need to go?_

"Y-yes. I need to get home. Though, I doubt I'm going to make it in time."

 _Then let me help you get back._

"How?" The boy asked, strapping his bag on.

 _Easy. Take Eragon down the mountain, but stay out of sight of the village_.

"Wait. You want me to ride one of the Zerglings? Is this safe?" He asked, as one of the Zerglings already stood ready next to him.

 _I am sure it is safe. They may look vicious, yet for some reason, they follow my orders to at._

Eragon looked down at the creature, which just stood there, waiting for him to get on top of it. On the one hand, it didn't look like there was any place he could safely sit on, not to mention this was a wild animal and certainly not a trained horse. On the other hand, his family needed him back at home, not to mention he still needed to make some money by selling the stone.

"Alright. Thanks, I guess."

 _Don't worry about it. I hope next time we meet, we can see each other face to face._

And before Eragon could answer, the Zergling took off. He barely managed to hold onto the two long spines, which prevented him from falling off.

XXX

A few hours later Mana watched through the eyes of one of her Zerglings, as Eragon set up camp for the night. The boy was blissfully unaware that the one that brought him down was still nearby. Mana only ordered the Zerg back, after the farm boy went to sleep for the night. Afterward, she retreated into her own mind and started thinking.

She hadn't been lying to the boy. She really did not remember how she got here. But at the same time, the girl inside the cocoon had not told the boy everything either. The entire hivemind had been able to feel his fear, which he somehow managed to control, by making himself believe that everything was just a dream. The Hivemind consisted of Mana, two Zerg buildings, the Hatchery and a Spawning Pool, the latter Eragon hadn't been able to see, twenty drones, five Overlords, and the ten Zerglings. As little as she remembered, the girl somehow knew instinctively what each unit and building were capable off, as well as the conditions that were needed to make one.

The drones, for example, were busy transporting meat from all sorts of wild animals living in the area, which the Zerglings killed beforehand. Everything from wolf to deer was transported carefully to the Hatchery, where it was turned into biomass, which would then later be used to either give life to more units or create an entirely new building. But Mana's mind wasn't focused on the economy for the moment.

Truth to be told, she ordered the Zerglings to kidnap Eragon, so she could have a conversation with a human once again. The Zerg weren't exactly a very talkative bunch. On hindsight, it had been a stupid decision, which surprisingly worked out. Those ten minutes of talking had done wonders to her psyche.

But what bothered her about Eragon was the feeling that she should know the name. His mere presence or the way he looked didn't trigger anything in her mind, no it was the name which got the gears in her mind working. Somewhere, some time ago she heard that name, probably even read it, but where? This name, this simple six-letter-word rang so many alarm bells in her head, it was just annoying.

She had long since accepted that worst case scenario she would never recover her memories, hell, she had been inside this cocoon for far too long to care anymore. But now that something actually managed to trigger such an intense reaction, such an excitement and at the same time such a strong feeling of nausea, it really annoyed her.

She just hoped that in time her memories really returned. Else she would have to spend a lot of time with Eragon (once she was outside this cocoon) and hoping something else he said triggered her brain. In the meantime, all she could do was build up her own personal army and then...well, she actually had no idea what then. So far she had only done what she had done, because after calming down from her freak out, she had quickly become incredibly bored.

 _Man, I already wish Eragon was back. NO, stop it! I don't remember giving you the order to abduct him again! The same goes for the rest of you!_


	2. Rebirth

**Rebirth**

 **A/N:** As one might guess from the cover, Mana has the look of the Kerrigan Master Skin from Heroes of the Storm.

The only way for Mana to keep track of time was to watch the outside world through the eyes of one of her Zerglings, Overlords or Drones. A Queen was in the making, as she would help to spread the creep, thus increasing the area where the Zerg could put their buildings on. Right now the only thing that was in the making, aside from the Queen was an Extractor, a building designed to pull additional resources out of the ground. Looking back, she should have ordered the Drones to morph into this specific building earlier, because despite hunting almost none stop, the Zerg had a huge resource problem. So big in fact, the Hatchery didn't have enough bioenergy stocked up to let a single Larvae morph into a replacement drone. Thankfully time was something Mana seemed to have plenty on hand, so to speak. Which was bad!

It had been just two days since Eragon's "visit" and so far nothing new happened. The only thing really worth mentioning happening was the feeling of her body melting and being reformed for the lack of a better term. This had been exciting and frightening at the beginning, but apparently one could get used to everything. Inside her little space Mana couldn't move much, which tended to further agitate the girl trapped inside. Luckily for her, whatever liquids were keeping her alive also influenced her brain in a way that made her feel content almost ninety percent of the time she was awake. However the other ten, she tended to rant and rant and rant with only the Zerglings to listen to her and of course all they could do was getting aggressive themselves and hunt down their prey more viciously than before.

Since nothing new was to be seen around the Hatchery, Mana had taken a little risk and sent one of her Overlords in the clouds and then told it to fly in the general direction where she had last seen Eragon. Luckily the cloudy weather hadn't changed the past couple of days, it even snowed one time, so the Overlord had no problem hiding from curious onlookers. The last thing she needed right now where some overzealous people thinking that she might be a threat, which she was and kill her and her little swarm before she was even out of her cocoon.

The things her Overlord managed to scout, however, were pretty disappointing. First of the village, if you could call that pile of houses that, had to be the smallest one she had ever seen. Her gut feeling told her as much. Thanks to the highly evolved eyes of the flying balloon-shaped Zerg and her mind link to said Zerg, Mana was capable of seeing very detailed pictures of the people doing their day to day business in the small village. For some reason, the clothes the people were wearing didn't match up with the ones she had been wearing before being enveloped by the fleshy cocoon. It was just the colors or style, but overall hers were definitely prettier and generally appeared to be done in a different fashion altogether. Though at the same time, she hadn't really been paying attention to her clothes at the time she woke up in this place.

Back to the topic at hand, the Overlord did manage to eventually spot Eragon, finding him working outside a hut on a field, alongside someone who appeared to be the same age as him, maybe his brother. From time to time an older man would join them, no doubt the father, although said man appeared to work mostly in the nearby barn. Maybe the two younger ones insisted since it was getting colder each day and no doubt the two brothers were worried about the health of the father.

This became a kind of hobby for Mana, watching the villagers doing their stuff when she wasn't occupied with her base. The Queen allowed Mana to further spread the creep with so-called Tumors that duck themselves underground once fully grown. She also managed to increase the Larvae production on the Hatchery, though it was pretty much useless, seeing as there were barely any resources to spend on troops or buildings for that matter. In her desperation, Mana ordered a second Extractor to be build, so that the Drones at least had something to do, aside from just staying inside the Hatchery the entire day. Aside from that, the wildlife in this part of the mountains was too scarce to properly stock up resources. The best guess was, the animals traveled down during the winter, in order to not have to dig through the snow for some grass. Only a couple of herds stayed on top. Even twenty Zerglings could only cover that much of a perimeter, which grew with each herd being slain and brought home for the biomass. At least the increased size of the creep area allowed the Zerglings and Drones to move around much faster than before, at least up to a certain point.

This routine went on for two more days. The creep would cover a bigger area, the Zerglings hunted everything down that had meat on its bones and the drones would carry it to the Hatchery or work in the Extractor. With more troops, more Overlords were needed in order for Mana to not lose control over the swarm. By now she had actually planned to add the Roach Warren, but the lack of resources put a stop that plan rather quickly. So instead of increasing the size of the swarm, the girl once again ordered her Zerglings to hunt down animals, but avoid the two villages the Overlords had spotted so far.

Mana used the opportunity to watch what was going on in those places once again. Eragon and his assumed brother were still busy on the fields, carrying everything they could into the nearby barn. In the meantime, some man with a white apron was being yelled at by a girl with brown hair. Some smith was handing over a knife to a woman.

Mana would have sighed if she could. Nothing interesting was happening once again. She was ready to just go to sleep when one of the Overlords asked for her attention. Opening a "channel", so to speak, the Overlord transmitted pictures to her. At first, it looked like just another village, but it didn't take long to see that this one was completely different. For one, the village was placed in the mountains and heavily fortified. A wooden wall at least five meters tall, spikes placed outside to impale every storming enemy and even a tower next to the huge double doors. Yet what lived inside those villages proofed to be really interesting. They looked like humans, but were significantly bigger, had gray skin, thick arms, bent over legs and sprouted horns from their heads. The smaller ones pretty much resembled human children, with the exception of the skin color. Something Mana noticed only later, was that the village actually extended into a nearby cave.

Those things didn't trigger any new memories for Mana, nor did she have a name on hand for those humanoid beings. It was an interesting fact and the girl made a mental note to ask Eragon later about those things. If the boy would build up the courage to come and visit her. Hopefully, he hadn't really convinced himself about everything being a dream. Maybe she should show the boy that in fact, it had all been real. However, she quickly abandoned that plan, as it would just have been stupid. She just needed to wait for Eragon to hunting again.

Five more days passed. The "people" in the mountain village did pretty much the same as the humans, with one exception. Those horned humans or whatever you wished to call them went hunting more often or would have one on one brawls, which ended up with one of the fighting parties dying more than one time. During the fifth day, all activity ceased to exist thanks to a blizzard. The Overlords were forced to land, as they would have been blown who knows where with the winds going on. Mana made another mental note to increase the speed of the Overlords, once the opportunity showed itself. Forced landings like this not only made the precious flying Zerg vulnerable, it also revealed that the Zerg themselves were present to the local population. Luckily the blizzard pretty much prevented anyone from getting outside. Once the blizzard passed everything was back to routine, which was a few days later mind you. Mana had lost precious time thanks to the weather, something she wasn't happy about, but what could she do?

Another couple of days passed, with the sky clearing up in the meantime. Mana ordered her Overlords back, just to be on the side of caution. She finally had enough biomass gathered and could build a Roach Warren and even build some Roaches, once the warren was done. They were at least at the height of a human and as wide as seven humans lined up. Their back armor was tougher than that of the Zerglings and had a lot more spines. Their entire face was almost hidden under the armor like a turtle, plus they had six six legs. Their ability to spit acid made them unusable for hunting purposes, but Mana just wanted to have them for the sake of having them, plus it gave her ever growing army a lot more firepower. Sadly it also turned out that Mana needed a lot more Overlords than anticipated to control just a couple of them. Soon enough the entire area around the Hatchery was halfway darkened by just the balloon like Zergs, plus the increasing numbers of Zerglings and Roaches filled the area. It truly began to look like a true nest, even with the constant movement of Zerglings and Drones. The units, which were not hunting or carrying something mostly stayed on guard near the Hatchery and the other buildings around it. The Queen especially liked to stay near Mana's cocoon. More often than ones she shot a bird of the cocoon that was foolish enough to even come near the Hatchery, let alone come close to the leader of the swarm. Mana thought the Queen was a little overzealous, but in the end felt touched by the gesture.

After two days of clear skies, it was cloudy once again and Mana sent out her scouting Overlords back to their positions. One of them flew over the river which flowed through the valley and noticed a huge caravan going next to the river. Various wagons were filled with cargo, which in return was covered by a cloth. Mana had no idea what exactly their business was but kept an eye on them anyway. So the Overlord followed the caravan until it reached the village Eragon lived nearby. From what she could see, the villagers appeared to be ecstatic about the arrival of the travelers. Hands their shaken, words exchanged and finally the travelers set up camp on the northern side of the village. It became clear soon that the arrivals were traveling merchants. Interesting to know, but in the end, the information was pretty much useless for Mana's situation.

The following day all the girl could do was watching bored out of her mind, as the villagers and travelers traded goods with each other. Not really something exciting to do, but all her swarm was doing was hunting for resources, so nothing new there. At one point Mana found Eragon and his family going to the village and talking to the traders. She didn't know why she was so fixated on him, though the most likely explanation was that she had managed to talk to him around two weeks earlier. She watched the people interact with each other for some time, before shutting off the connection to the Overlord hovering over the area.

Bored out of her mind, Mana forced herself to sleep, despite it not being night. Luckily for her, this wasn't an issue, as the cocoon helped her out.

XXX

Something was wrong. So very, very wrong. Mana woke up in the middle of the night all of the sudden, restless and full of energy. She always felt trapped inside her cocoon but could accept it as a necessary evil for her recovery. Now however she wanted to get out. She needed to get out. Simply being cramped up in this tiny space made her so angry, she was sure her blood was boiling like lava. Unbeknownst to her, purple energy was gathering around her cocoon. It was also pulsing like a hard and looking like it was ready to burst. Every nearby Zerg unit was watching in anticipation, from a safe distance understandingly. They didn't have to wait long.

Instinctively Mana gathered energy and released it all at once. The cocoon literally exploded, the chitin flying in every possible direction. Where once there was simply an egg, now flew the leader of the swarm, radiating massive amounts of energy. She let out a war cry, which was heard through the entire Palancar Valley. Everything stopped for a few moments, be it animal or human. It was like time had stopped in this part of the world, for every living being could feel the force behind that inhuman shout. Little did the people know that this marked the beginning of great changes to come to Alagaesia. Whether these changes were good or bad had yet to be seen.

XXX

After the excess energy was depleted, Mana's feet gently landed on the creep and looked around. For the first time in weeks, she was capable of seeing through her own eyes again and it felt good to see the world around her. Every color appeared to be more intense than before. Whether that was due to her better eyesight or because she hadn't been able to use her eyes for so long, she didn't know.

Her Zerg slowly came closer and closer, until the closest ones were only a few feet away. Then, as if they had practiced it beforehand, each of the Zerg bowed before their leader synchronized at the exact same time. Mana couldn't help but smile triumphantly. Seeing all those deadly and terrifying creatures bowing to her of all people, made her feel powerful. And that is without mentioning the power she actually felt ever since waking up. She was sure she could take down the entire village of the horned people up north all by herself with one arm missing. And probably still have time to murder the entire valley.

The leader of the swarm was about to take her first few steps when she noticed something of the corner of her vision. This something appeared to be a bony stick or something, covered in chitin. Turning her entire head around, Mana found out that the bony stick was part of a wing structure growing out of her back! In fact, the leader of the Zerg now possessed a pair of bony wings, only these weren't true wings as there was neither feathers or leather, which would get her off the ground in the first place. Pleasantly surprised, she looked down at her own body and noticed that it was covered in chitin plating. The clothes she had been wearing upon her wakening up were gone. For some reason, it felt like this should bother her, but it didn't. Mana didn't ponder upon that thought process for too long since she wanted to know how exactly she looked like. So without further ado, she went into the mind of the Queen and took a good look at herself.

As previously mentioned, she was covered in a chitin plating, with two colossal wings growing out of her back. Her skin color was now an overall purple, with some parts of her body shining in a brighter version of that color. Her face was what remained mostly human, though her eyes were glowing purple as well. Some sort of crown grew out of her head and her hair appeared to be glued together in dreadlocks and then covered with chitin. Plus it now reached down all the way below her waist. Similar to the crown, she now possessed triangular shoulder blades and her lower arms were covered in extra chitin, which grew into spikes before it reached the elbows. It was the same case with the legs. Her hands were now deadly claws, looking like they could tear through the skin by simply touching it. Finally, there was some sort of "bandage" around Mana's feet, plus stilettos grew out of the heels. If not for the visible toes, one would assume she was wearing high heel shoes.

Overall, Mana was happy with her transformation. She looked just as deadly, as she was sexy. Satisfied, she returned to her own body and found that the swarm was still looking for her, seemingly waiting for a grand speech. Or maybe just orders.

"Continue with your work. Our swarm needs to grow. We have to evolve." Three simple sentences, yet the swarm was seemingly happy or rather ecstatic about the prospect of growing bigger and more importantly evolving further. But in order for both to become reality, they needed to continue their work. In a matter of seconds, every Zergling had left the Hive Cluster, hunting for more Biomass. Mana herself walked towards the Hive Queen and said: "Take care of things here. I'm going on a little stroll."

The Queen unit bowed respectively in response. Seeing as her swarm had their orders, Mana decided to test out her new body. Despite already knowing what she can do, thanks to the Zergs ability to tap into genetic memory, she desperately needed some sort of activity or else she would go crazy!

XXX

After walking for half an hour through the woods, Mana finally let loose, so to speak. With her wings she cut down trees at least a century old. Her fist smashed rocks three times her size into tiny pieces. Her movement had become so fast, most creatures would only be able to make out a blur. After thoroughly destroying her surroundings (around a 500-meter radius consisting of trees, moss and a couple of rocks), she began running. She ran faster and faster, faster than she had ever run, faster than humanly possible and even faster than a leopard. Obstacles she either dodged or smashed out of her way. She didn't know how long she ran, but by the time she decided to stop, the sun was already rising. Granted she didn't know when she woke up, but the Queen of the swarm must have run at least an hour. She must have had a lot of pent up energy.

Luckily for her, she could feel her swarm and the general direction she had to go to return. With the help of the Overlords, she could pinpoint her exact location. Knowing where she had to go, Mana casually walked through the bushes, enjoying the first rays of sunshine on her new skin. The adrenaline slowly but surely left her body and soon enough she actually felt relaxed. She looked around a little bit curious about the place she was in and the plants she saw. Most of them she recognized instinctively. She didn't remember their names, probably never knew them from the start, but was sure she had seen them before. But there were also plants which appeared to be exotic to her, like something you'd see in another country. It appeared that subconsciously her memories were still intact, thus resulting in her to recognize some of those plants, while others were new to her.

"Maybe I should talk to Eragon again." Mana mused to herself. "He did trigger something...hmmm. In any event, I should try to meet him the next time he goes out hunting."

Luckily for her, she didn't need to wait for too long. Having heard her wishes, an Overlord lent her his vision. For some reason, Eragon had decided to get up early and venture into the woods. Also, he was carrying something in his arms.


	3. Talks

Mana didn't try to be stealthy or anything. As such, it came to no surprise that Eragon aimed with his bow and arrow at her when he heard her feet shuffling through the snow. He in return was thrown out of the loop, upon seeing a very beautiful and very naked woman in front of him. While so far, the boy had yet to show any interest in even pursuing a relationship, he was still a hormone driven teenager with dreams and fantasies. And with Mana standing in front of him the way she was, he almost lost his footing on the slippery ground, all the while staring slack-jawed at the Zerg woman.

Mana let out a low chuckle, her voice having to echo as if there were two people speaking at once. "Surprised to see me like this?" she asked with a teasing smile and a hand on her hip. "Although, I doubt you recognize me. After all, the last time we "saw" each other, I was still stuck in my cocoon."

"Y-You're Mana?!" Eragon exclaimed in surprise, dropping his weapon.

"In the flesh." the woman said coyly. The farmer was at a loss for words. He remembered his encounter with the Zerg a few weeks earlier, but had shrugged it off as a dream, caused the head injury, which he must have received by slipping up and hitting his head on a stone. However now he saw that Mana was very much a real, yet still very naked person. His reproductive organs already made themselves ready for delivery.

Mana wanted to approach the young man when she suddenly heard a hiss coming from the ground. Looking down, she found that there was a creature she was completely unfamiliar with standing next to Eragon's legs. It looked like some sort of lizard with wings and it had beautiful, shiny blue scales. Its claws looked like they were as sharp as knives and unlike other lizard creatures this one had teeth inside its mouth.

Eragon looked down at the little creature with a worried expression. He kneeled right next to it and tried to calm it down, by stroking the back of the creature. It didn't work out so well because Mana was still coming closer to the two. He could feel the dragon tensing up with each footstep that the woman made. Looking up, he found out that said woman was now standing right in front of him and incidentally his gaze landed on her well curved and full chest area. Blushing furiously, the farmer looked away, hoping the woman had not noticed. Unbeknownst to him she did but didn't care about it at the moment. She was sure every man would have automatically looked in that particular direction. Instead, she knelt down right in front of the boy and the lizard and cooed at it.

"Aw, what do we have here?" she asked in a sweet, motherly tone, as motherly as her new voice could be anyways. She stretched out her arm, seemingly trying to pet the creature, but that appeared to be the last straw. Fast like a snake, the lizard bit Mana's arm. Eragon gasped initially, hoping the little dragon didn't anger the woman in front of him. Because as hot as she looked, the still rational thinking part of his brain (albeit a small one) had long registered that this woman could kill him in a matter of seconds if she wished to do so.

To his surprise, instead of retracting her hand in pain, the woman looked at the dragon biting her hand for a second, before she started laughing. Her echoing voice sent chills down his spine, as this sounded like the laughter you would imagine coming from a villain in one of Brom's stories.

"A feisty one," she commented with a smile, before freeing her hand. "I haven't seen anyone like this before. At least I don't think so. What is this creature called?" she asked, pointing at the dragon, who let out another hiss. It must have interpreted the action as a sign of aggression.

For his part, Eragon was at a complete loss. First, the dragon egg appeared out of nowhere, probably transported by magic, next he met a new kind creature, which then proceeded to abduct him. Next, he found himself talking to a human, who was trapped inside a cocoon. Then, of course, the egg hatched and left some kind of mark on his hand. Ever since that happened last night he somehow had been able to "feel" the dragon's presence, as well as it's emotions. Somehow. If that wasn't some kind of magic then he didn't know. And finally, right in front of him stood a naked insect woman, who claimed to be the woman from the cocoon. The world had gone mad.

A worried squeak brought the boy back to reality. He could feel the dragon rubbing its tiny head against his leg. When he looked down, he found the small creature looking back up to him with a worried expression on its face. On top of that, he could feel it's worry through the link that he discovered last night. Almost acting on the instinct, Eragon tried to give or rather let the dragon feel his own reassurance. It at least looked like it works, then again, he might have accidentally accomplished the opposite.

He was startled all of the sudden, when he felt something weighing on his shoulder. Turning his head, he found out that Mana was looking at him with a worried expression. The boy felt his cheeks heat up a little. He also noticed the little arteries in the woman's face, which looked like small lightning strikes.

"Relax," Mana reassured with a kind smile. "If I wanted you dead, I could have destroyed your entire village already. How about we sit down and have a nice little chat?"

Eragon nodded numbly, trying to keep his instincts in check, in order to not run away...or possibly do something really, really stupid. He cleaned a rock of the recently fallen snow and sat down on it. Mana did the same with a fallen tree and put one leg over the other, not helping Eragon with his teenage, hormone driven fantasy. He tried to focus his mind on something else, namely the dragon. He gently put it on his lap and stroke the majestic being like a cat. It seemingly calmed the creature down, as it gently rested its head on the farm boy's lap.

"A-aren't you...cold?" Eragon asked with a blush, looking away immediately.

"Huh?" The Zerg woman looked confused and looked down on herself and the tree she was sitting on. Only when her gaze fell back on Eragon, did she realize what he meant.

"Oh, that's what you mean." She giggled. "I'm sorry. I almost forgot that humans wear clothes all the times. My own must have been destroyed during my recovery in the cocoon. I guess I made you uncomfortable, hmm? Again, I'm sorry."

"N-no problem," Eragon muttered.

"So...hmm, how should we-? Well, I guess I should start talking since I was the one who came up with this idea. And my first guess is you want to know what happened to me."

"Er...that would be helpful?" the boy asked with an uneasy smile. In his lap, the dragon flapped its wings a couple of times, before gently nestling them against its sides again.

"Hmm, well, to put it bluntly, the Zerg have their own way of helping people. Mainly by turning humans into one of them." Mana said those two sentences as if she was talking about the weather.

"They did this to you?" Eragon asked for confirmation.

The zerg woman nodded. "I have been aware of this fact for quite some time, while I was in the cocoon to be precise. Getting used to the knowledge that you're being turned into an entirely different species" she shook her head "needless to say, I pretty much panicked. By the time the Zerglings…*ahem*...invited you for tea" Eragon couldn't help but smile "I had already been in that thing long enough to get used to the situation."

"It...must have been hard." the boy replied carefully.

"It was. Especially since I didn't really remember much and still don't. But now...it's hard to explain. I guess I'm glad to be still alive." She looked down on her claw-like hands. "Though, without memories...it's aarrgh, forget it. I've been complaining about my memories for weeks. Granted, the other Zerg don't really talk, but I guess it's nice to have someone to listen to."

"I...see." He totally didn't. Eragon was just a simple farm boy and such at a complete loss. All his mind could comprehend was monsters, magic, dragons and a woman turned into a monster. And she wasn't trying to kill him, so that was a plus.

"Hmm, so, tell me a little about yourself. As you might have guessed it's been quite some time since I had a conversation with a human."

"Er…" And now Eragon had to make sure that he didn't anger the woman in some way to kill him. Sure she looked unusual, but he had heard more than enough stories to know that anything that even remotely resembled a monster, could kill you in very horrible and unspeakable ways.

"I'm really not all that special. I'm just a farmboy."

"Mhm. A farm boy with an exotic pet." Mana pointed out.

"Oh, oh. Him." Eragon had to bit his lip. He would love to avoid the subject of the dragon, which puffed a little bit of smoke out of its nostrils because quite frankly he didn't know where exactly the egg came from. He also feared Mana might do something to the poor thing, maybe even turn it into a monster too.

"I...er...i-i-i-i-i-i-it's c-c-c-c-c-complicated." he stuttered heavily. "I-I…"

"Hey, hey, hey." Noticing his obvious distress, Mana raised her arms in a peaceful matter. "Calm down, okay? I already told you, I'm not going to do anything to you with that I also mean I'm not going to do anything to your little friend."

Said "little friend" hissed at the Zerg woman once again, as if it wasn't convinced by that statement.

"And if you're uncomfortable telling me something, then just say so. Okay?"

"S-sorry." the boy apologized and looked away again.

Mana suppressed the urge to sigh, as she could see him trembling, which seemed to further aggravate the little lizard on his lap. Seeing as this was probably going nowhere, the Zerg Queen turned around, thinking it might be best to leave the boy alone and let all the information sink in.

"I guess I'm asking too much for you to trust me. Don't worry, I understand. I will leave you to your business then." She said and was about to walk away, when…

"No, wait!" Eragon shouted, standing up. Surprised, Mana turned around finding Eragon looking a little conflicted.

"What is it?" she asked. "Don't tell me you feel guilty all of the sudden." An amused smile crept up her face. "It's fine, really. I would be most likely scared too if I were in your shoes."

"I...guess," Eragon admitted reluctantly. "But...uh...I just..umm...I mean…"

The woman in front of the boy giggled, seeing as how he was stumbling over his own words. "All right," she said and walked back to her previous spot. "Let us take this slowly and let's best ignore the little snake on your lab. I would like to keep my fingers, thank you very much."

Mana actually managed to bring Eragon to smile, while the dragon on his lab just kept staring disapprovingly at the woman.

"You already said that you are a farmer. Can you tell me a little bit about your home? The village perhaps?"

"Mmm, okay. Well, our village is probably the smallest one in the entirety of Alagaesia, so we don't have much. There is Horst, our local smith. He's really kind hearted and helped me out recently when I had a fight with Sloan. He's our butcher and… we had a disagreement a few days ago. I wanted to buy some meat for my family, but he wasn't satisfied with my...money. Luckily his daughter and I are friends, so she called Horst, who then paid instead of me. I have now to work for him in the summer to pay him back. My uncle isn't too happy about it because he actually needs me on the farm." Eragon frowned. "I need to see if I can work it out somehow."

"Hmm…" Mana tapped her chin with a claw. "I see. You mentioned an uncle. Do you have any other family?"

The boy nodded. "There's Roran, my cousin. He's going to leave Carvahall soon, in order to make some money. He's planning to marry in a couple of years if everything goes right."

"Now that's interesting." the Zerg woman commented. "You didn't mention your parents? Are they...dead?" she asked carefully.

"My mother." Eragon nodded, not really feeling sad about it. "She died before I really got to know her. I never knew my father. No one seems to know who he is."

"Is that so? For a simple farmboy, you have an interesting background." she grinned. "Almost as if you're destined to be the hero of a fairy tail. You already have a little dragon companion. The only thing I see missing is a damsel in distress." Mana laughed, while Eragon blushed, clearly uncomfortable with that particular train of thought. He looked down on his little dragon, who in return looked back up with big curious eyes. It rubbed its head against the boy's hand, like a cat asking to be pet again. The boy complied, causing the dragon to let out a happy squeak. Both human and former human looked down at the dragon for a second, before continuing their talk.

"Eragon, there's something else I wanted to ask you. You see the other Zerg discovered something interesting the other day. A small village, carefully hidden within the mountains far up in the north."

"Really?" Eragon asked surprised. "I have never heard of a village high up in the mountains, let alone the Spine of all places."

"It might be because those guys didn't exactly look human. Similar, yes, but if memory serves, humans do not grow horns on their head."

"Urgals?!" Eragon exclaimed surprised. The dragon squeaked in surprise too, but not due to what the Zerg said, but because of the sudden noise the human made. As for Mana, she raised an eyebrow at the sudden exclamation.

"I take it humans and….urgals, correct? They don't get along very well."

"Urgals are monsters." The farmboy said without hesitation. "They kill a human when they see one. The travelers told us how the number of Urgal attacks has increased in the kingdom. For some reason, they're traveling towards the desert in the south, although nobody seems to know why."

"Hmm...I'm afraid I don't have an idea either. Frankly, I don't remember anything about the urgals, I didn't even recognize them upon seeing them." Mana shook her head. "In any event, I doubt they will come out of their village anytime soon. The only urgals we spotted were hunting in the wild. A few Zerg are always on the lookout and will inform me immediately when the urgals decide to head out. I could even warn you ahead of time in case anything happens."

Eragon didn't look too happy with that. "Uh...no offense, but...I don't think the other villagers will appreciate seeing...you know…"

As it just so happened, one of the bushes began to rustle. A second later a Zergling stepped out of it, causing Eragon to jump off his sitting position. Luckily he held the dragon in his hands at the time or else the poor little guy would have hit the ground rather uncomfortably. The Zergling ignored the human and the little, hissing, smoke puffing lizard in his hands and almost casually strolled over to his queen. He lied down right next to her and allowed her to scratch his head.

"Oh don't worry about the villagers."

Have you forgotten I can do this?

Sarah sent a mental transmission over to Eragon, who flinched not only upon hearing words in his head but also upon the sudden sensation of a mountain being put on his brain. Luckily the sensation disappeared just as soon as it came. Still, the boy was disoriented for quite some time. Mana thought that was because he wasn't used to hearing a voice inside his head.

"I'm sorry. I guess I should have at least warned you beforehand."

"Urrgh…" Eragon groaned, his dragon squeaking in worry about its caretaker. Luckily he managed to catch himself and shook his head for good measure. "I...forgot you could...do this." he shivered a little.

"Sorry again. Are you feeling alright?"

"Yes, yes. I think so."

"Good to hear." Mana smiled. "But what I'm trying to say is, I can simply contact you with this ability." She put two fingers on the side of her head and then pointed with them at Eragon's own head. "Actually that's also how I am able to communicate with the other Zerg."

"Really?!" the boy asked.

"What, did you think I actually understand any of the skittering or whatever noises they let out?" The Zerg woman asked, pointing on Zergling on her feet, which let out a low growl, as it was being stroked on the head.

"Oh...yes...I guess...that would be...difficult."

Mana couldn't help herself, but facepalm.


End file.
